Personality Assessment through Longitudinal Designs

Introduction

Personality research is concerned with individual differences on the one hand and with the total person on the other (see Pervin & John, 2001). Of course, people are similar in some ways; however, they differ from one another in several aspects. The complex relationships between those aspects make the person(ality) as a whole functioning. But, how can one define personality in a more concrete way? Pervin and John answer this question: ‘Personality represents those characteristics of the person that account for consistent patterns of behaviour.’ Of course, other definitions are given as well, and dozens of them may be known to the reader. These definitions are more or less useful in focusing on different fields of scientific research of personality, such as organization and dynamics ...